Patents Illustrate Crafty Surveillance Techniques

The days of simple law-enforcement wiretaps for telephone surveillance are gone. Today’s digital networks break conversations into packets for transmission and reassembly at their destination, making them harder for law enforcement agencies to identify and monitor. Compounding the surveillance complexity are Federal laws that specify how and when law enforcement agencies may monitor individuals within the United States.

James Clapper, Director of the NSA, recently stated that “the NSA does not voyeuristically pour through U.S. citizens’ e-mails.” But leaks like those of Edward Snowden tend to confirm what many conspiracy theorists fear, that the United States security apparatus has become an ungovernable force.

There are extensive disclosures in patent applications at the U.S. Patent Office. Patent grants over the past decade illustrate a number of crafty surveillance techniques. Below are some of the patents we uncovered:

8094791 – Verizon: Comparing keystrokes in order to biometrically authenticate a caller’s identity.

8270573 – Ericsson: Intercepting ringback tones, identifying the called party, and routing the tone to law enforcement for analysis.

The patent system advances a somewhat speculative constitutional charter. It allows the public to see the complete inventions in exchange for granting the inventor a limited monopoly. But there are no assurances that the patented inventions will become commercial products.